Looking for bargains on the busiest shipping day of the year

Posted:
Monday, December 15, 2008 7:21 PM EST

Dubuque (KWWL) -- For shipping companies, this Monday, December 15 is busiest day of the year. Workers are sorting millions of holiday packages. Federal Express says a plane will touch down every 48 seconds from now until Christmas

Millions of packages will be processed by the end of the day Monday. The United States Postal Service says it will process double what it does on a normal day. At the UPS store, it's no different.

We stock extra boxes of course and we stock extra staff," Business manager Clare Richard said.

By noon, more than one hundred packages went out of the Dubuque store with hundreds more expected by the end of the day.

This year, the busiest day is somewhat different. People are looking for ways to save on shipping, starting with what to send.

"There's such a variety out there that if they want to keep a package lower costwise, they can look for lighter items to ship becuase it will go on dimensions, the weight of your box and zip code," Richard said.

Another route -- compare prices. We compared shipping prices for a small box weighing around six pounds, shipping to the west coast.

USPS: $10.11

Guaranteed by Christmas USPS:$14.40

FedEx: $10.85

UPS: $12.40

Keep in mind :we just asked for the cheapest, some companies like UPS offer extras like free insurance or package tracking at their lowest price.

Another big saver: wrap, box and tape your own boxes.

As for UPS, workers anticipate the final countdown to Christmas to just stay busy.

"We are open extra hours and extra days up until christmas, so basically until they stop coming in the door at night, we'll stay until the last customer leaves," Richard said.